Mac OS X 10.8.4 fixes iMessage ordering issue, more

Even though eyes are on next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is rumored to usher in the next major update to OS X, Apple hasn’t stopped supporting its current version. The company on Tuesday released Mac OS X 10.8.4, bringing numerous fixes and improvements.

Among the changes in the latest Mountain Lion update are improved compatibility with certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks, better Microsoft Exchange compatibility in Calendar, a fix for issues with FaceTime calls to non-U.S. phone numbers, and—to cries of joy heard round the world—a solution for an issue where iMessages might show up up out of order in Messages.

A new version of Safari, 6.0.5, is included in the download as well; Apple says it improves stability for some websites with chat features and games. (Not that anybody uses the Web for chatting or playing games, right?)

Additionally, Calendar birthdays should no longer appear incorrectly in certain time zones, VoiceOver compatibility for text in PDFs should be better, and an issue where the desktop background picture wasn’t correctly preserved after restart should be fixed. There a number of other tweaks and enhancements, as detailed in Apple’s support knowledge base document.

As per usual, the OS X update also features a number of security fixes, making it recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users; the included Safari 6.0.5 likewise has its own security updates. Users of earlier versions of OS X can download Security Update 2013-002 to receive the same patches.

Mac OS X 10.8.4 is available as a free download via the Mac App Store. As of this writing, it wasn’t yet available as an update from Apple’s support downloads site.

Dan Moren Senior Editor

Dan has been writing about all things Apple since 2006, when he first started contributing to the MacUser blog. Since then he's covered most of the company's major product releases and reviewed every major revision of iOS. In his "copious" free time, he's usually grinding away on a novel or two.More by Dan Moren